09:30am    Nice quiet relaxing day at home today, so I will be doing some chart watching from time to time inbetween emails and Skype call and any trades I have will be reported below. I am slightly later than usual with this Market Update as I have some issues with my broadband this morning although all seems ok now..

Market Update:

Markets this morning are awaiting President-elect Donald Trumps first official speech ahead of him moving into the White House at the end of next week.  The U.S. S&P-500 index has had a good run-up this year but has stalled this week after reaching a high at 2282 last Friday and traders are sitting on their hands until they can digest the details of Trump’s speech later this afternoon (European time).

The overnight Asian market ended mostly up as they generally see the new Trump administration as good thing for trade between their respective countries and European indices are following suit in the first few hours of trading this morning. Crude oil values have jumped up on sketchy rumours that Saudi Arabia has cut supplies to some Asian customers although full details seem unavailable at the moment which has capped the bullish move – WTI Crude closed down $1.07 last night at $50.75 but has risen this morning to around $51.12. As expected, there has been a small move to safety ahead of the Trump speech so Gold rose $6.51 yesterday to $1187.50 and it’s at the same level this morning as the 50-day moving average provides some resistance.

Trading Diary:

10:45am   I’ve just entered a ‘short’ position on my Brent Crude chart – it’s a UTB price reversal set-up with a 15 pip stop loss.

11:05am   Off for a cycle ride now, I’ve left my stop loss set at 15 pips but left the target open for the moment and I will see where the price has got to when I get back. It is not a strategy I would suggest for a new trader, it would be better to set a target of 1:1 or 1.5:1 instead.

12:20pm  Out of my Brent Crude trade now, it has given me a +24 pip profit.  The weekly Crude Oil Inventories numbers are out soon so it was never going to be an lengthy trade and I am happy with the small profit.

14:15pm    I am now in a ‘short’ Master-The-Trend position on my Gold 15-min chart, it is a strategy-B set-up with a 27 pip stop loss.

15:20pm   The Gold price has come down nicely and it has achieved a +87 pip profit so I am now out of the position.

With volatility in the Crude Oil market following the Crude Oil Inventories and Trump’s speech coming up in 40 minutes time, I am going to close my charts now and be back trading here tomorrow morning.